By:
Marshall Pruett 13 hours ago Is the new IndyCar superspeedway wing a weird boomerang, an ineffective showpiece, or an actual downforce-producing device?
“Yeah, it’s an actual wing,” said Tino Belli, IndyCar’s director of aerodynamic research.Questions on the topic have come in from fans since the device was unveiled last year, and with its unique shape, featuring a swept profile and anhedral wing tips, the new one-piece unit was patterned after Honda’s speedway wing from last year’s manufacturer aero kit.
“The rear wing, the span, we tweaked the span a little bit wider, and surprisingly, those wing tips work really, really well,” Belli added. “They just make the wing think it is a larger span wing, just like on your [Boeing] 767s.”Teams are expected to run at or near the limit of maximum downforce allowed by the series for Sunday’s Indy 500. With a specified usage range of negative nine degrees at its lowest downforce race and two degrees positive to give the most downforce, staying in the positive will be key if the forecast for temperatures above 90 degrees are accurate.With help from IndyCar and the Auto Research Center in Indianapolis that helps with aero simulation for the series, some interesting numbers have been produced. Adjusting the wing to negative nine degrees — a nose-up condition, it makes just 33 pounds of downforce on its own (
pictured below).